Grieving widow or black widow? The day Joan Medford buried her husband was a fateful one - because before the day was out she'd meet the two men who would change her life forever. Forced to take a job waitressing to support herself and her child, Joan finds herself caught between the handsome young schemer whose touch she comes to crave and the wealthy older man whose touch repels her…but who otherwise would make a tempting husband number two. It's a classic Cain triangle - brutal and sexual and stark - that can only end in death. But for whom, the guilty…or the innocent?

Mildred Pierce

Mildred Pierce had gorgeous legs, a way with a skillet, and a bone-deep core of toughness and determination. She used those attributes to survive a divorce in 1940s America with two children and to claw her way out of poverty, becoming a successful businesswoman. But Mildred also had two weaknesses: a yen for shiftless men and an unreasoning devotion to her monstrous daughter.

Double Indemnity

Tautly narrated and excruciatingly suspenseful, Double Indemnity gives us an X-ray view of guilt, of duplicity, and of the kind of obsessive, loveless love that devastates everything it touches. First published in 1936, this novel reaffirmed James M. Cain as a virtuoso of the roman noir.

Salvation of a Saint

Yoshitaka, who was about to leave his marriage and his wife, is poisoned by arsenic-laced coffee and dies. His wife, Ayane, is the logical suspect - except that she was hundreds of miles away when he was murdered. The lead detective, Tokyo Police Detective Kusanagi, is immediately smitten with her and refuses to believe that she could have had anything to do with the crime. His assistant, Kaoru Utsumi, however, is convinced Ayane is guilty. While Utsumi’s instincts tell her one thing, the facts of the case are another matter.

Live by Night

Boston, 1926. The ‘20s are roaring. Liquor is flowing, bullets are flying, and one man sets out to make his mark on the world. Prohibition has given rise to an endless network of underground distilleries, speakeasies, gangsters, and corrupt cops. Joe Coughlin, the youngest son of a prominent Boston police captain, has long since turned his back on his strict and proper upbringing. Now having graduated from a childhood of petty theft to a career in the pay of the city's most fearsome mobsters, Joe enjoys the spoils, thrills, and notoriety of being an outlaw.

Somebody Owes Me Money: A Hard Case Crime Novel

Cab driver Chet Conway was hoping for a good tip from his latest fare, the sort he could spend. But what he got was a tip on a horse race; which might have turned out okay, except that when he went to collect his winnings, Chet found his bookie lying dead on the living room floor. Chet knows he had nothing to do with it.

Borderline: A Hard Case Crime Novel

On the border between El Paso, Texas and Juarez, Mexico, five lives are about to collide - with fatal results. This is MWA Grand Master Lawrence Block at his rawest and most visceral, a bloody, bawdy, brutal story of passion and punishment - and of lines that were never meant to be crossed - available for the first time in 50 years!

The Blonde: A Novel

It’s early spring 1959, and the word desire is synonymous with America’s most famous blonde: Marilyn Monroe. Being desired is her drug, her kryptonite, the very definition of who she is. It’s so much a part of her identity that her own wants and needs have become fleeting at best, as if she’s seen herself through others’ eyes so often that she’s forgotten what she looks like through her own. But the deepest needs always surface, and there is one thing Marilyn wishes for beyond all else: to meet her real father.

The Adventures of Sam Spade, Detective: Volumes One & Two

Steely. Seasoned. Smart-alecky. The storied San Francisco snooper is back! Share the exciting exploits of Dashiell Hammett's famous gumshoe through this thrilling 6-hour collection. Featuring all of the episodes from both our Volume One and Volume Two collections, Howard Duff and Steve Dunne star as Sam Spade in 12 madcap capers from 1946 - 1951. As crass as he is charismatic, this dynamic detective attracts a curious clientele - gentlemen who tend to drop dead and ladies who are drop-dead gorgeous.

Gun Games: A Decker/Lazarus Novel

LAPD lieutenant detective Decker and his wife, Rina, have willingly welcomed fifteen-year-old Gabriel Whitman into their home. While the enigmatic teen seems to be adapting easily, Decker knows only too well the secrets adolescents keep - witnessed by the tragic suicide of another teen, Gregory Hesse, a student at Bell and Wakefield, one of the city’s most exclusive prep schools. Gregory’s mother refuses to believe her son shot himself and convinces Decker to look deeper. What he finds disturbs him. The gun used in the tragedy was stolen....

The Dain Curse

The Continental Op is a short, squat, and utterly unsentimental tank of a private detective. Miss Gabrielle Dain Leggett is young, wealthy, and a devotee of morphine and religious cults. She has an unfortunate effect on the people around her: they have a habit of dying violently. Is Gabrielle the victim of a family curse? Or is the truth about her weirder and infinitely more dangerous? The Dain Curse is one of the Continental Op's most bizarre cases, and a tautly crafted masterpiece of suspense.

A Swell-Looking Babe

It was supposed to be only a temporary job - something to pay the bills until Dusty could get his feet back on the ground and raise enough money for medical school. After all, there's nothing wrong with being a bellboy at a respectable hotel like the Manton - that is, until she came along. Marcia Hillis. The perfect woman. Beautiful. Experienced. Older and wiser. But while Dusty has designs on Marcia, Marcia has an agenda of her own.

Publisher's Summary

Grieving widow or black widow?

The day Joan Medford buried her husband was a fateful one - because before the day was out she'd meet the two men who would change her life forever. Forced to take a job waitressing to support herself and her child, Joan finds herself caught between the handsome young schemer whose touch she comes to crave and the wealthy older man whose touch repels her… but who otherwise would make a tempting husband number two. It's a classic Cain triangle - brutal and sexual and stark - that can only end in death. But for whom, the guilty…or the innocent?

The final novel written by James M. Cain and never before published, The Cocktail Waitress is a testament to the enduring power of one of the most acclaimed novelists of the 20th century. The author of unforgettable noir classics such as Double Indemnity, Mildred Pierce, and The Postman Always Rings Twice, Cain's work remains as impossible to put down today as when first written, and will leave even jaded modern readers breathless.

Different kind of book, this one was published 30 years after the author's death. James M Cain wrote "The Postman Always Rings Twice" which was twice made into a movie. Cain was most famous as a writer in the 30's and 40's and he was one of the original writers of crime and sin before it became mainstream. He was also know for writing about femme fatale's, women who were caught up in a bad marriage or bad situation and couldn't see a way out and how that played out. "The Cocktail Waitress" fits this mold. The person who got this last novel published was a Cain fan who heard the book existed and went to work looking for it. It took him 9 years. He found some of it in the Library of Congress, some with the author's last agent, who was also dead. He put all the pieces together, edited it, and this is the result. The author was in his 80's when he wrote this. If you're a Cain fan or like these types of books, it's worth the effort, it's a fairly short book.

This was a fun book in that it had sort of a campy, "trashy novel" feed about it. The best aspect,however , was the reader, who can make or break an audiobook experience.This reader made this story come alive .The plot itself was just okay, not Cain's best work. Both audiobooks I ve listened to by James Cain have been enhanced by the choice of narrator.

World view and attitudes of characters are like the (I think 1940s) black and white movies, which I enjoyed. But it does not come across as enjoyable to me in text form. I guess the movies with the black and white, classic actors, hair styles, cars, etc of the era allow you to identify with the characters mindsets and situations so you can enjoy the story in it's context. In text torm without all the visual and audio world building of the times, too much seems silly from a point of view of today and it just didn't work for me.

Your report has been received. It will be reviewed by Audible and we will take appropriate action.

Can't wait to hear more from this listener?

You can now follow your favorite reviewers on Audible.

When you follow another listener, we'll highlight the books they review, and even email* you a copy of any new reviews they write. You can un-follow a listener at any time to stop receiving their updates.

* If you already opted out of emails from Audible you will still get review emails by the listeners you follow.